The environment is everywhere.

Some are suggesting that the stock prices in oil drilling firms are going to go way up for the usual reasons: we need the oil, we can’t quit, etc. But I think these firms will experience a boom for another reason: increasing regulation.

It’s highly like that new regulations will require that deep-water oil wells are going to have to be developed in tandem from now on. So, there will be at least two wells: one for the oil, and a relief well, just like they are drilling now to help stop the BP oil leak in the Gulf. This will require a fair amount of extra effort, keeping the drilling firms quite busy, as well as the firms that build and supply the rigs.

It’s not like oil companies can’t afford it. And their insurance companies may well require this approach, as well.